Congress likely to hold brainstorming AICC meet in March

New Delhi: Battered by successive election defeats, Congress is likely to hold a brainstorming AICC meet in March next year to work out a strategy to arrest the party's sliding base and enthuse its cadres.

Party sources on Friday said that such a meeting could be held in March to hammer out solutions for the party after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi receives inputs from the states and districts by February end for which AICC general secretaries were given specific instructions on Wednesday.

The last AICC meeting was held on January 17 this year, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in which Gandhi had said that "though there is a tough battle ahead, the Congress will go into battle as warrior with heads held high."

It was the same meeting during which Manishankar Aiyar had made controversial "tea-seller" remark against the then BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

The Lok Sabha polls saw the Congress tally plummeting from 206 in 2009 to a mere 44.

Since then, serious deliberations have started in Congress about its ideological pull, connect with masses and form of organisation as the party entered into its 130th year on Sunday.

Top leadership of the party will be present in the AICC on December 28, when the party will observe its 130th Foundation Day.

The party Vice President, who was Congress face for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in which the party recorded its worst-ever performance, has begun a post-mortem of the debacle and held a series of consultations with leaders from across the country in groups.

Many leaders in Congress believe that the challenge before the party this time is bigger as while on one hand it's vote base in Hindi states has been taken by parties representing caste aspirations, it faces a 'Hindutva' force at the national level amid an impression having been created that Congress appeases minority in the name of secularism.